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HOME SWEET HOME By John Howard Payne 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. Home, home, sweet, sweet home! There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home! An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain; Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! The birds singing gayly, that come at my call -- Give me them -- and the peace of mind, dearer than all! Home, home, sweet, sweet home! There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home! I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild, And feel that my mother now thinks of her child, As she looks on that moon from our own cottage door Thro' the woodbine, whose fragrance shall cheer me no more. Home, home, sweet, sweet home! There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home! How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's smile, And the caress of a mother to soothe and beguile! Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam, But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home. Home, home, sweet, sweet home! There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home! To thee I'll return, overburdened with care; The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there; No more from that cottage again will I roam; Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. Home, home, sweet, sweet, home! There's no place like home, oh, there's no place like home! |
Home Sweet Home More recently, in 1909, it was featured as being played in the silent film The House of Cards by Thomas A. Edison. In the particular scene, a frontier bar was hurriedly closed due to a fracas. A card reading "Play Home Sweet Home" was displayed, upon which an on-screen fiddler promptly supplied a pantomime of the song. This may imply a popular association of this song with the closing hour of drinking establishments. This song is famous in Japan as "Hanyū no Yado" ("埴生の宿"?) ("My Humble Cottage"). It has been used in such movies as The Burmese Harp and Grave of the Fireflies. It is also used at Senri-Chūō Station on the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway.
John Howard Payne (9 June 1791 – 10 April 1852) was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had most of his theatrical career and success in London. He is today most remembered as the creator of "Home! Sweet Home!", a song he wrote in 1822 that became widely popular in the United States, Great Britain, and the English-speaking world. After his return to the United States, Payne spent time with the Cherokee Indians, and published accounts claiming their origin as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. Payne was appointed American Consul to Tunis in 1842, where he served for nearly 10 years until his death. Payne was a distant cousin of American parlor song composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond, born 10 years after Payne's death.[1] |
